


Let Them

by JudetheInvincible



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur's POV, Homophobia, Hurt!Merlin, I retconned Uther to be a good person, M/M, Merlin gets kicked out of his house, Modern Era, first person POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-09 02:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11659314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudetheInvincible/pseuds/JudetheInvincible
Summary: Merlin comes out to his parents, and it does not go at all well.





	Let Them

My phone was ringing. I could hear it clearly; it was face-down next to my hand. I was struggling with a trigonometry problem I should’ve done yesterday though, and I let it go to voicemail.  
My phone started ringing again and I ignored it. It rang for the third time and I picked it up, sighing. It went to video call, and my throat seemed intent on strangling itself when I saw who it was.  
“Merlin,” I hissed into the phone, as if frightened someone would hear me in the empty apartment, “Aren’t you supposed to be grounded?”  
The boy on the other end of the phone looked at me, a sparkle in his eye. It took me a second to realize that his glistening cornea was indicative of tears.  
“Oh man, I’m sorry. Never mind that. What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Merlin shook his head. The camera on Merlin’s end was trembling a bit. Not so much that nothing could be seen, but more than it normally might have.  
“Arthur… I told my parents.” I felt my face go slack and my eyes widen. “They didn’t take it well. They kicked me out. I need a place to crash until my grandma comes and talks some sense into them or she takes me to live with her. I called her immediately, and she offered, but I said I wanted to call you first.”  
“Of course you can stay over. You’re at my house all the time and my parents already like you. It’ll be fine. It’s okay.” Merlin shook his head again. “Well, maybe not okay yet, but it will be. We’ll make it okay. We’re almost out of high school, and then we can escape to college. You’re smarter than I am; maybe you can get a scholarship.”  
“Yeah… Thank you. See you soon.”  
“See you.” Merlin hung up and I put my phone back down. I went back to my trigonometry, but my mind was somewhere else, and I couldn’t get anything done. When the doorbell rang at last, I sighed in relief and hurried to buzz Merlin in.  
When the door opened, I looked him over. He was shaking, as if he was barely holding himself together. I gave him a hug and for a moment we stood in the open doorway, taking comfort in the embrace.  
When we broke apart, I gestured towards the living room and closed the door. We sat together on the loveseat in front of the television and Merlin leaned his head on my shoulder.  
“I’m sorry for asking this of you so abruptly… I could’ve given you some warning, I think.”  
I waved my hand, as if clearing the air of Merlin’s misplaced guilt. “It’s not like you got any warning. Don’t worry about it.” I patted the short couch. “Is this okay for you to sleep on? I can inflate the air mattress if you need it.” Merlin shook his head, but he was calmer now.  
“This is fine, but I could go for a glass of water.”  
“Any particular vintage, sir?” I asked, adopting a terrible French accent. Merlin smiled.  
“Do you have any of the 2016? I haven’t found many restaurants that keep it. I’ll give you five stars on Yelp if you do.”  
“An excellent vintage, sir. I won’t be but a moment.” I grabbed him a glass and filled it from the tap, and afterwards we kept up our easy banter until we heard the door unlock. Merlin grabbed my arm and I rested my hand on Merlin’s hip.  
When the door opened, my mother entered. She called my name and I carefully pried Merlin’s hand off of me to greet my mother and explain. She nodded, made sympathetic noises, and gasped at the appropriate intervals until I beckoned to Merlin, who was peeking around the wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house.  
“I can leave if you need me to, Mrs. Pendragon-” Mom hugged him, cutting him off. Merlin was tall and spindly but he squeezed her right back. Tears were peeking out of his eyelids again. He was the first to pull away and he bit his lip nervously.  
“Please, it’s Ygraine. And of course you can stay. I don’t mind a bit. We’d never throw you or Arthur out on the street. You two are perfect just the way you are. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.” Merlin wiped his face with the sleeve of his sweatshirt, but his face only got more wet. He took shuddering breaths and wrapped his arms around me, burying his head in my shoulder. His breathing was riddled with hiccups and gasps, but he was smiling. Joy radiated from his center, which seemed to be the crinkles at the corners of his eyes that had formed because of his normally incessant grins.  
My mom patted his back and went to make up the air mattress.  
When my dad came home, there was some brief tension about having something that was essentially a sleepover with two eighteen year-old boys. However that was soon diffused with the help of Mom, and after that was sorted out, my dad was quite amiable.  
Merlin hadn’t been able to grab his pyjamas. He only had an extra t-shirt, his wallet, and his school things which were in his backpack in the first place. I gave him a maroon hoodie, a pair of flannel pants, and a toothbrush from the hall closet. In return, Merlin walked me through the trigonometry problem that had been giving me so much trouble. We dragged it out so that we went to bed long after my parents.  
The air mattress lay next to the love seat, and so even though I was exhausted, I sat on the sofa, waiting for Merlin to finally get to sleep.  
“Do you ever wonder if sound could be upside-down?”  
“Do you think time can die?”  
“Does age really matter? If you don’t know your age, how old are you?”  
I humored him, but I hadn’t given most of Merlin’s questions much thought before. I honestly didn’t have answers most of the time.  
“Arthur,” Merlin said in a voice that implied that sleep wouldn’t be long in coming. “Do you think my parents will let me come back?”  
I didn’t respond. I still didn’t have an answer.  
The next day was Sunday, and my neck hurt. A lot. I had ended up falling asleep on the couch, and I was still in my clothes from yesterday. I woke up to the strong smell of bacon and warm syrup. The air mattress had deflated during the night and it was empty. Groaning, I stood and stumbled through the hallway to the dining room.  
Merlin and my parents were chatting about school at the table. The table was an awkward piece of furniture; it was too big for the room and only made a comfortable passageway to the kitchen if shoved against the opposite wall. The table was set but no food was on the plates. Merlin looked up when I dropped my chin to rest on Merlin’s fluffy hair. He chuckled and patted my head.  
“Look who finally decided to join the land of the living.” I grumbled and took a seat next to Merlin.  
“Well, now that you’re awake, we can eat.” Mom laughed, in that small way that many more reserved people tend to do: a sharp, quiet exhalation of air through the nose. As she dished out pancakes and bacon, I took Merlin’s hand under the table. When we had cleaned our dishes, I offered to walk the dog and Merlin accompanied me.  
On their way to the park, I looped my arm through Merlin’s elbow. Merlin’s eyes darted around the avenue, but he relaxed after realizing that they were on an empty stretch. I felt something inside me break a little, but I knew that Merlin had it worse than I did and I told him jokes until he smiled again.  
The park was large and fenced, so dogs were permitted to be off leash. After setting our “black fluffy” (as my dad liked to call it) free, the pair of us sat on a bench to watch the dogs and small children frolic and gambol about happily. We sat near to each other on the bench. Not so close that we were touching, as Merlin seemed to be making a conscious effort to keep his knee from bumping into mine.  
I studied Merlin’s expression carefully. The two of us had known each other for about five years now and had rather familiar knowledge of the other’s ticks and habits. Merlin was chewing on his lip in a way that I had never seen anyone else ever do; he would pinch the dry skin on his lower lip and pull it into his mouth and chew that for a bit. Then he would shift his lip to one side and do it again. He only did this when he was nervous or on edge, and in this case I knew exactly why.  
Merlin’s parents were being some of the worst people I knew. Parents ought to be supportive in all respects excluding substance abuse, breaking the law, and other various foolish activities that many teens may choose to engage in. Merlin’s parents, probably more his mom than his dad, had thrown him out of the house for being honest, and now he was paralyzed and frightened at a dog park where the main sentiment was supposed to be joy and freedom.  
With no further deliberation, I laced my fingers through Merlin’s and smiled broadly at anyone who turned to look at them.  
At first, Merlin tried to pull away. His pupils had dilated and were flickering from one face to another. I held his hand tighter and gave him a reassuring look.  
“Arthur,” Merlin whispered, “people are staring.”  
I grinned again, but it wasn’t to show those around me that I didn’t care about what they thought. It was for Merlin, and Merlin alone, and it was to tell him that the only thing I cared about was him.  
“Let them.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hoped you liked it, and if you did, please drop me a comment or two or some kudos. Any feedback is much appreciated.
> 
> The format's a little weird because this was a story that I originally wrote for my English class, and then it fit these two goofs perfectly, so I changed some names around and now it works.
> 
> My betas for this were just a bunch of my classmates, so I can't put their names here, but if you guys ever happen to come across this, credit to you. (Also, if you do read this, how could you not tell me you liked Merlin? And since when do you read fanfiction?)


End file.
